The United States is the most racially diverse nation in world history. The United States draws its strength from this diversity. The contribution of individuals of every race, ethnicity, religion and socio-economic background has built America into the world’s most powerful nation. And, yet, racial, ethnic and socio-economic strife that derives from misunderstanding and ignorance remains the nation’s most intractable problem. As a result, demagogues, nationalists, and other bigoted individuals and organizations are able to exploit this misunderstanding to promote hate-filled, exclusionary, and repressive policies and agendas. This cycle repeats itself during each national election cycle, and can be seen as the basis for the rise of groups …show more content…
Using the sociological concept of the other as a theoretical framework to analyze the efficacy of efforts to reduce racial, ethnic, and economic isolation in hyper-segregated White high schools, we conclude that these efforts are at best ineffective, and at worse reinforce the negative stereotypes and mental models that contribute to a deficient and inaccurate sense of the other. In a perfect world, Connecticut’s legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government would recognize and address the pernicious impact of maintaining a system of public school districts that use the force of law associated with district residency requirements to create racially hyper-segregated public schools. This issue could easily be fixed by creating new, racially balanced school districts, or by making every public school in Connecticut a school of choice. It is unclear if there is a political will to undertake this bold action. It is also unclear whether parents and property owners would support this direct action by electing politicians who support these policy changes. It must be assumed that for the foreseeable future Connecticut will maintain racially hyper-segregated public schools. Therefore, efforts to reduce racial, ethnic and economic isolation will remain the providence of hyper-segregated White high
In his article, “Still Separate, Still Unequal: America’s Educational Apartheid”, Jonathan Kozol points out, whether we are aware or not, how American public schools are segregated. Schools that were segregated twenty-five to thirty years ago are still segregated, and schools that had been integrated are now re-segregating. The achievement gap between black and white students, after narrowing for a few decades, started to widen once again in the early 1990s when federal courts got rid of the mandates of the Brown decision and schools were no longer required to integrate.
In his essay “Still Separate, Still Unequal: America’s Educational Apartheid,” Jonathan Kozol brings our attention to the apparent growing trend of racial segregation within America’s urban and inner-city schools (309-310). Kozol provides several supporting factors to his claim stemming from his research and observations of different school environments, its teachers and students, and personal conversations with those teachers and students.
For years, people of color-mainly African Americans- suffered brutal oppression that was condoned by our government, the most common form of this being slavery and segregation. However, even after the Civil Rights movement and other evolutions within our society, the repercussions of this way of life still haunt African Americans to this day. In the article, “The Rhetoric of Choice: Segregation, Desegregation, and Charter Schools ”, Ansley T. Erickson discusses how, “When early twentieth-century planners imagined new modes of city design, they thought of schools and neighborhoods as mutually constitutive; many embraced segregation as an appropriate characteristic of both. ”(Erickson). This in turn resulted in many schools still being virtually segregated, with schools of color usually having lesser quality education, therefore still affecting the conditions in which today's school children recieve their educations.
Published by the New York Times under the Opinion section, the audience for this article is any interested reader. At the time it was released, November 18th, 2016, this article arrived during last year’s elections, in which a large, but surprising number of Americans voted for candidate Donald Trump, shocking many forecasters who had predicted otherwise. Therefore, after the election, many people may have been researching the demographics of the election, and this article, which briefly shared Brooks’ opinion on the nature of the election and how viewing others through the lens of a dominant identity influenced how the votes fell where they did, may have caught a keen reader’s eye. Also, this article came at a time where racism and prejudice caused many problems, leading some to view others as one-dimensional, represented only by a skin color or religion. Since prejudice and hate is still a large issue today, tackling this problem helps make this article relevant, nearly a year after its release.
In 1954 the Supreme Court saw a case called Brown v. Board of Education of Kansas. This case was about segregation of public schools but before this was to be found unconstitutional, the school system in Kansas and all over the United States had segregated schools. For example, Topeka Kansas had 18 neighborhood schools for white children, but only 4 schools for African American children. (Brown v. Board of Education) Many people believe that the problem is no longer existent; however, many present day African American students still attend schools that are segregated. This problem goes all the way back to the 18th and 19th centuries when slavery was prevalent, yet still to this day it has not come to an end. Complete racial integration has yet to happen in many areas. This problem is not only in the Kansas City School District, but all over the country. The segregation of races in schools can impact a student’s future greatly. The Kansas City school district has been known to have the most troubled school’s systems for a long time.(Source) I’m sure the school board is well aware of the problem of racial inequality that is before them, but I will help them become more aware of the problem and how it affects a student’s future. In today’s society it is commonly overlooked on how important the subject of racial segregation really is. In this memo I will discuss the topics of racial socialization and school based discrimination in Kansas City, and the resulting effects that
Since the election of Donald Trump, the country seems to be in a state of division. Protests against the president’s executive orders and movements like Black Lives Matter has caused many hate groups to make a reappearance into the main-stream media. White supremacist, white nationalists, and alt-right leaders are speaking their minds about the perceived discrimination against whites. These types of white advocacy groups have gone through an evolution since the times of the Ku Klux Klan and have created new techniques for recruiting members. These units can be a type of love/hate relationship, and once people have joined, they find it very difficult to leave. But hate can be overcome; through education, tolerance training, and even counter-protesting. Because of feelings of discontent, fear in the loss of white power, and a lack of experience with groups outside of their race, America is seeing a dangerous and unfortunate rise in these types of hate groups.
With the inauguration of Donald Trump rapidly approaching, there has been a much needed resurgence of interest in the progressive movement around the country, as well as an awakening to the need of an actual revolution by more moderate liberals. The Republican sweep of all levels of government indicates an all too familiar conservative backlash against the social progress that has been steadily building over the last eight years. Historically, this has ultimately led to the empowerment of emboldened racists and bigots of all ilks, which we are presently seeing.
The U.S Supreme Court adopted the exclusionary rule to prevent the use of inappropriate behavior and violations of an individual’s rights by government officials through the use of the exclusionary rule. The exclusionary rule protects the rights of the people under the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments, and requires evidence obtained directly or indirectly as a result of government violations cannot be used as proof of guilt in a court of law [1]
We have come to understand public education in the United States as a core principle of one’s rights as a citizen in spite of it not explicitly guaranteed within the Constitution. Despite the passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, we continue to witness the fight for complete and total integration within our public schools and thus, racial equality. The 14th Amendment forbid states from denying any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws, but was unclear in terms of it’s exact intention with respect to public education. As a result, were unable to see the effective use and enforcement of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments until approximately the 1940s for a number reasons, but I believe that structural racism is the foremost cause. Today, we find ourselves struggling to achieve full integration within our public school system due to the covert intentions behind structural racism and therefore, it’s ability to overpower the law. Structural racism has the ability to impact legal authority in such a way where we end up with a lack of appropriate enforcement legislation at the Supreme Court level and a lack of acknowledgement and remedies for de jure segregation and thus, it is the primary cause of the current segregation within the American public school system.
The United States has a longstanding history of racism and discriminatory policy, stemming from the colonial era. Generally, those who weren’t considered true White Americans faced blatant ethnicity-based discrimination and adversity in matters of education, human rights, immigration, land ownership, and politics. Specific racial institutions, characteristic of the 17th to 20th centuries, included slavery, wars against the Native Americans, exclusion from civil life, and segregation. It wasn’t until the mid-20th century that formal racial discrimination was banned, and majority attitudes began to see racism as socially unacceptable. However, our relatively recent racialized history has left an unfortunate impact on present society. The legacy of historical racism still continues to be echoed through socioeconomic inequality, and racial politics still remain a major phenomenon. Many argue that our government systems have shifted from means of overt racism to more symbolic, covert racism, and that this is reflected in our societal institutions, such as employment, housing, education, economics, and government.
The presidential election of Barak Obama has led many to believe that we live in a post-racial society. If an African-American candidate has been elected in a predominantly white nation, this must signify that the U.S. does not have barriers that hinder African-Americans and other people of color from accessing opportunities or that we live in a color-blind society – in which race is not an issue. However, public perception on police profiling and the fairness of our justice system, public support for Donald Trump’s discriminatory ideologies, and racist actions by fraternities at universities illustrate the prevalence and continuity of racism in the U.S. Thus, to address the way in which racism plagues our society, it is important for political leaders and the media to educate believers of a color-blind society that racial discrimination is an issue which needs to properly be addressed for the well-being of all member of society.
With the advancement of thinking in the United States since the Jim Crow era, shouldn’t school segregation be a thing of the past? Well, this is an ongoing epidemic in the United States, and it has a dangerous effect on the youth. School segregation rates are at an all time high, and the main reason for this increase is residential segregation, or segregation of neighborhoods. Although school segregation can be a result of economic policy, housing policies have a greater influence on segregation. Many neighborhoods that are classified as low income, have a negative connotation attached with them. This causes a difference in funding of schools located in those districts, and those students end up paying the price.
High school is often considered a microcosm of society. Beliefs, social order, and current issues present themselves through student’s interactions and the environment they learn in. One of the oldest and still prevalent issues in the United States today is race and equality. So it is no surprise when racial issues are exposed in public education. Although many believe the civil rights era fixed most discrimination, racism remains in schools. Even after court ordered integration, classroom disparities have led to harmful segregation to continue within schools.
Throughout American history, relationships between racial and ethnic groups have been marked by antagonism, inequality, and violence. In today’s complex and fast-paced society, historians, social theorists and anthropologists have been known to devote significant amounts of time examining and interrogating not only the interior climate of the institutions that shape human behavior and personalities, but also relations between race and culture. It is difficult to tolerate the notion; America has won its victory over racism. Even though many maintain America is a “color blind nation,” racism and racial conflict remain to be prevalent in the social fabric of American institutions. As a result, one may question if issues and challenges
Institutional racism has solidified its position into various aspects of American society. It has installed itself into employment practices, all levels of education, healthcare, housing, politics and the criminal justice system. Institutional racism has made some subtle changes to replace the boldness of slavery and Jim Crow. However, in educational institutions the effects of racism and discrimination are so delicate they typically go unnoticed by students of color. Individual racism usually happens on the personal level where the prejudice is expressed either consciously or unconsciously while there is some form of interpersonal encounter. When it comes to institutional racism it is similar to the individual concepts, however policies and practices are associated with with the belief of racial dominance of one group over another. It is a powerful system that use race to determine power and privilege(Reynolds et al., 2010). Even after the desegregation of school, educational institution are still separated. In Shelby County where I have lived since 1999 there are schools for minorities, and there are schools for whites. The schools for minorities in the city of Memphis have police officers walking the halls and there no books for learning. There are higher numbers of Whites students enrolled in private, charter, and magnet schools in the more affluent segments of the county. They will be exposed to the advantages of a proper education because of their race and privilege